Europe's New Fintech Unicorn, Revolut, Heads to America
*By Conor White*
Europe has a new unicorn.
The London-based fintech company Revolut announced last month it raised $250 million in Series C funding, bumping its valuation to $1.7 billion.
Revolut will use some of that money to jump across the pond to the United States.
"Given how aggravated people are with banking in general, we believe there's a huge market to go into the U.S. and cause serious disruption," said the Revolut chief marketing officer, Chad West. "So a huge amount of this capital will be expanding ourselves into the U.S., and building a real, innovative team out there."
In just 36 months, Revolut has raised $340 million, signed up more than 2 million customers in Europe, and has its sites set on conquering America and challenging companies like Robinhood.
"Right now Robinhood is purely on that road of wealth management and investments," West said Friday in an interview with Cheddar. "When Revolut comes to the U.S.A, there's nothing quite like us. We are the definition of a challenger bank."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/london-based-fintech-revolut-plots-route-to-u-s).
Lance Ippolito, Head Trader at Future of Wealth, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says the President's executive order on crypto is a step in the right direction even though investor sentiment cooled off on Thursday.
After a week of headlines that ranged from a potential criminal investigation by the Justice Department to a 20 for 1 stock split, Michael Pachter, the managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, joined Cheddar News to shake out what wild week means for the tech giant and what he thinks is behind possible government antipathy towards the company. "If you look at Amazon, Capitol Hill hates them," he said. "And maybe it's just because Bezos looks like Dr. Evil, but I think part of it is that a lot of constituents of these legislators just don't whine at Congress, 'leave my company alone,' the way they do with Disney or Microsoft."
The ongoing semiconductor chip shortage has been impacting everything from the purchase of cars to smartphones. Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves spoke with Cheddar about the Biden administration's efforts to combat the issue and if the current crisis in Ukraine will have any impact on the global supply chain problems for semiconductors. "We're working very closely with all of our partners and allies around the globe, just as we have on the export controls and sanctions that we've applied to Russia to deal with that needless aggression," he said. "We're also working with them on the challenges of raw materials for a range of industries, including the semiconductor industry. We believe that we are going to be able to meet the demand for the for the near term."
Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves spoke to Cheddar's Alex Vuocolo about the ongoing semiconductor shortages and the push from the Biden administration to cover the supply chain problem as well as look ahead to future-proofing it.
Card Issuing Platform Marqeta blowing past Wall Street expectations in its Q4 earnings report, with revenue jumping to $155 million, up significantly from the $86 million it reported last quarter. Vidya Peters, Chief Operating Officer, Marqeta, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the company's strong growth as well as her tips for female leaders.
Apple wrapped up its first product event of the year called 'Peek Performance.' The event showcased Apple's new affordable iPhone, an iPad air update, and the most powerful mac chip yet. Ian Sherr, editor at large at CNET, joins Cheddar News to discuss the highlights of the event.
Uber Lyft and Doordash are all set to spend $1 million dollars on a campaign and efforts to stop lawmakers from classifying their gig workers as employees. The campaign features TV and online ads highlighting Washington area workers who say they prefer the flexibility of being an independent contractor rather than following the model of a company employee. Professor at NYU. Stern School of Business and author of the sharing economy, Arun Sundararajan, joined Cheddar to discuss more.